As we’ve continued to chronicle the ongoing turmoil at the Shadow Theatre, it was inevitable the question would arise. And it has, from more than one reader:

“Why are you covering this story so closely?”

It’s a legitimate question: A dozen theaters fold or go dormant each year without much fanfare. And the answer is simple: Because Shadow Theatre matters. And as the only fully operating theater company in Colorado telling black stories, there’s more at stake with its potential passing.

And there have been several major developments not previously reported in print. Most significantly:

Recently resigned artistic director Keith L. Hatten has come forward to assert that in the three months before his predecessor, Jeffrey Nickelson, left Shadow, the company founder was paying himself $7,000 a month, and his assistant $5,000 a month.

That would be the equivalent of an $84,000 salary, which no one would bat an eyelash at in flush times. Especially given that Nickelson didn’t pay himself a dime for the first five years and only then started himself on a $16,000 salary.

But times are not flush. “And that’s a lot of money for a theater that has no money,” said Hatten.

His bigger issue, Hatten claims, is that there were extras.

“He was paying himself $7,000 a month before he would pay for his personal wardrobe, and call it a costume (expense),” said Hatten, who said he has turned his documentation over to a board member. “Before he would pay for every single meal, and call it entertainment. Before he would pay for some of his phone bills and some of his car note.

“To supplement your income after you make $7,000 a month, while the rent, performance rights and other bills were going unpaid, and then only pay performers $300 for an entire show, I think was irresponsible,” said Hatten, who claims he’s owed $21,700 in back pay. And if Shadow somehow manages to stay open, he says, he’s going after it.

Hugo Jon Sayles responds

Hugo Jon Sayles has kept a public silence about the ongoing turmoil at Shadow, he says, out of respect to Nickelson and the company they built together. But in light of the questions raised above, he called in to offer the following testimonial:

“This is the story I wish you guys would tell: In the early years, when we were doing the the summer program, we had a student, and she and her mother were living in a van for the course of the show. Her mother was an artist. We didn’t have a lot of money. We weren’t funded by a lot of places back then. Jeffery did not give her money; he offered her the chance to paint a piece for the children’s show that year. And she made this beautiful painting that still is in Shadow, even today, near the dressing room. With the money he gave her, they got an apartment. That’s the Jeffrey Nickelson I know.”

In other Shadow developments:

• After Hatten resigned, former company grant writer L.J. Harker admitted she has made dishonest statements on grant applications, which could jeopardize funding requests for years to come. Some of the company info Harker has reported to potential grant makers has been, at best, wishful thinking, she said, at worst, pure fiction.

“Had I answered honestly, we would not have received funding,” she said.

• The most-asked question from readers has been: What happened to $1,200 in contributions that was collected in the weeks after Nickelson’s death? Ladi Crenshaw, who was being groomed to be Nickelson’s successor as artistic director in five years, says it went to defray about $2,900 she personally incurred in assuming Nickelson’s funeral expenses. Perhaps confusing matters is that while Crenshaw has started the Jeffrey Nickelson Memorial Fund to help community elders in need (720-620-2316); Nickelson’s daughter, ShaShauna Staton, is in the process of establishing the separate Jeffrey Nickelson Foundation, a scholarship fund (720-838-7702).

• Hatten, who resigned after eight months, now admits he wasn’t the right man right for the job. “I was ready for the responsibility, but I was not ready for the level of importance (of the position),” said Hatten. “I didn’t want ‘black theater’ to be on my shoulders. That’s not my cross to bear.”

• The Shadow board, which is moving forward with a 14th season announcement to be made March 27, will hire an executive director, though it hasn’t said how or how much it intends to pay. No artistic director will be hired for at least another year.

• If there is one. In his gut, Hatten doesn’t think Shadow will survive. “I don’t see how they can dig out of the hole,” he said. “Because even if they are successful in staying open, they still have to pay wages, and I don’t see how they do that. The hole is too great.”

Mizel Museum acquires Lowenstein collection

Long before Henry Lowenstein became known as Denver’s most prominent theater producer, he was a child of the kindertransport. Now the theater legend has donated his personal documents from World War II to the Mizel Museum, 400 South Kearney St.

These documents detail his family’s struggle to survive the Holocaust.

“I think the Mizel Museum is the right place for my collection of papers relating to my family and my parents’ miraculous survival in Berlin during World War II,” he said. “Museums carry a special responsibility to continue to explain and tell about one of the darkest chapters in human history.”

Included in the collection are postcards from the Theresienstadt ghetto, the Lowenstein family’s deportation notice and documents regarding the kindertransport.

Born in Berlin in 1925, Lowenstein fled the Nazis in 1939 on the kindertransport, which rescued 10,000 young refugees from the quickly deteriorating situation in Germany. Upon arrival in England, Lowenstein worked his way through the war on a farm and made his way to America in 1947.

His mother, father, and sister all survived the war and also immigrated to America in the postwar years. He spent three years as an illustrator in the U.S. Air Force and then applied to Yale’s graduate school to study theatrical design.

Lowenstein applied to Yale graduate school with no undergraduate degree, no U.S. citizenship and only one piece of theatrical artwork in his portfolio. He was admitted on a leap of faith.

Lowenstein came to Denver in 1956 to work at the Bonfils Theatre on East Colfax Avenue, which was later renamed the Lowenstein Theatre.

The Mizel Museum hopes the acquisition will help educate the public about the Holocaust by engaging them with a local survivor’s story and objects. The Mizel Museum’s forthcoming permanent exhibition, “4,000 Year Road Trip: Gathering Sparks,” will feature aspects of Lowenstein’s collection. The exhibit is in development and set to open this summer.

Briefly…

There’s little not to like about the Denver Center’s 2010-11 season, which was announced Wednesday and features seven titles less than 5 years old. For our complete coverage, including video and pictures, go to this link

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